Beneficiary: Regional Company in Alberese
Investment: Lire 319.023.618  
Grant: Lire 189.819.053

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

At the archive State in Prague there is a large number of original tools and documents related to Lorena’s management of Alberese and Maremma areas. This material consists of codes, notes, maps, reports and drawings, and it seems to be very important for the knowledge of the territory of Maremma. For the research, the Company stipulated an agreement with University of Siena, and in particular with the teaching of History of Agriculture and, at the same time, it avails of the collaboration of some officials of the Archive of Prague. The selection concerning the material should have originated two different cultural moments: the installation of an exhibition during which Prague material and any other object also from local provenience were exposed, which is necessary for the understanding, of the audience of a so long part of politic and agricultural history. Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic and timing reasons, it was not possible to deliver the documentation from Prague for the exhibition, for which the creation of an Archive inside Lorena’s villa in Alberese has been financed; the interior of the villa is composed of materials which are held in Prague which will be properly microfilmed and photographed and, for the first time, they will be made available to scholars, subject to the agreement with the State Archive in Prague. In order to carry out this project, restoration works of the company real and artistic Estate of the Company have been realized (premises of Lorena’s villa dedicated to exhibition spaces), fully funded by the same Company with £.1.300.000.000; the restoration of the art works which are preserved there as well as the restoration of the parish Church “Santa Maria” in Alberese, selected as a collective space where to organise meetings and seminars of public interest, concerning the cultural projects in Alberese. As the Regional Company is mainly agricultural, it was necessary to adopt personnel who was able to follow all the stages of planning and implementation of the action and as well as of its proper dissemination. The initiative has financed the research, the cataloguing, the indexing, the microfilming and the processing of images and information collected digitally, the costs for the restoration of works of art (a canvas of 18th century, an oil painting dated 19th century, a painting of 19th century, a  canvas of the 20th century and five geometrical cards), as iconographic heritage of Tuscany Region at Villa Granducale di Alberese. This action results to be interesting not only because it scheduled the retrieval of the archives of one of the households which strongly characterized our area, but it could also be used as preliminary and support activity from the Municipality of Grosseto for exhibition activities or for school and cultural activities.